 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Secrets of Golf Waynflete Alumni Magazine University of Maine Bar Harbor Times > back to main articles page |
article by Nancy Manter
In June of 2003 at the Dieu Donne Papermill, located in Manhattan, I created a new series of paperpuip drawings entitled "The Secrets of Golf" For several years I have been developing drawings, paintings and photographs of cultivated and designed landscapes, as a way of interpreting and understanding my own relations to nature in the twenty-first Century. This series is based on my childhood aversion to the game of golf, and my current observations while walking a number of courses with my 11 year old son, who has taken to golf and plays in tournaments. I am not informed about the rules, regulations or skills involved in playing the game of golf, and yet I am able to visually observe a round of golf, with great detail and patience, from the tee, down each fairway, to the putting greens, totaling 18 holes in each game. This is how I look at a painting.
I usually begin early in the morning or by nighttime, and make what I think of as earthwork "drawings." In the morning I begin these "drawings" using my feet in dew, like a pencil to paper, spontaneously creating linear configurations across the greens. I then digitally photograph them, not so much as to create an exact record or document, but to enable me to visually recall, trace or remember something about the time and place. All my drawing marks rapidly evaporate and erase themselves as the sun rises, and before the tournament begins. My intent is to not leave any tracks behind in the landscape of golf. When the tournament is in process, I draw a series of sketches in a notebook. I am intrigued with the subtle variations in surface, distance and degrees of difficulty in golf. I have also made "drawings" at night in the fog, relying only on muscle memory rather than sight, to guide me across the greens. I use all of these references to create new work in my studio, which also includes small-scale paintings. The paintings allow me to shift in scale from an expansive terrain into a confined and microscopic format.
Various measuring tools were used in the process of creating "The Secrets of Golf' series in the Papermill. I layer several grounds of tinted paper pulp blown over handmade paper or roofing paper. I then drop, rolled or incise actual golf balls into the surface. This process and medium reveals my own secret visual, imaginary and intuitive reflections on the phenomenal madness and pleasures of the game of golf.
I am an observer who was originally steeped in the history of a naturalistic landscape, growing up in rural Maine. My work has now evolved into being concerned with the cultured and designed landscapes in our contemporary society. Other landscapes I have worked in have been places to Nordic and downhill ski, backcountry roads where teenagers so often race cars on, and clam flats created in tidal areas where recently the natural flow of water has been affected by development. I think of my work as barometers, maps and as a means to orient and chart a visual path for myself, as our fast track culture continually expands into other landscape domains.
> download pdf of this article